Fighting ALS, Fueled by Faith

It’s been a good bit from my last post, for all of the right reasons really. My wife and I had planned a two week trip to do a few things. Top of the list was to get everyone together to “witness” and celebrate my youngest daughter’s engagement! Yay!! We are so excited for them and absolutely love her fiancé . My kids from California made a huge effort to be there for the weekend and of course my Ohio crew was there. Proposals are a much bigger event these days than they were when I asked my amazing bride to marry me. There was a Rapunzel theme from the movie Tangled with lanterns by a waterfall and the whole bit. My daughter was overjoyed and we are off to planning another wedding! This will be our fourth and final wedding for our crew, all within four years. I am living proof that you can be happy and poor at the same time!

Another part of the trip was surrounding spending time during my youngest’s Fall Break from school. We have always gone to Cedarville Homecoming from the first year my son attended. This year we waited a bit later to visit during fall break. I love Autumn, as I posted before, and was super excited to see the trees change. We rented an Airbnb in Rabbit Hash, KY. It’s a small (and I mean small) spot on the Ohio River about an hour south of Cincinnati. It was a cool and quirky rental that suited our family perfectly. We ate, ate, slept, sat by the fire and had fireside chats, ate, went to a couple of farmers markets and ate. Pretty much a hand crafted Johnson vacation. It was good for the soul.

Lastly, we spent time in our young adult children’s worlds. Stayed with them, listened to what they are up to, saw where they go to shop and eat out, spoke of the rights and wrongs of this crazy world we all live in and genuinely enjoyed seeing them adult. So good. Being able to relate to their world is foundational and provides a richness to the relationship that you can’t get any other way. One funny caveat to all of this is that we recently had all of our old videos digitized. We had VHS, high 8 tapes, cds and probably other forms of media put on the cloud. We watched a bit of the home movies to the delight of everyone and realized while some things change, many stay the same. I haven’t laughed so hard in years. Pull out the old stuff and reminisce – it’s worth your time.

Brief ALS Update: We are now about 3 weeks into changing our whole supplement regime and it’s making a difference. We found and have been in contact with a family where the dad had ALS that had progressed pretty far. They found a regime that worked for him and is what is now being called a documented reversal. Typically with ALS the best you are looking for is to slow or stop the progression, so actual improvement is a really big deal. There are many details available for any that want to hear what we are experiencing so please reach out to me via the comments and we will be happy to share. Suffice to say – we are as optimistic as we have been yet. We remain steadfast in knowing God is in control but we are doing our best to do our part.

I wanted to end with another thank you for all of you who are supporting myself and the ALS of Nevada this coming Sunday for the walk fundraiser. I am blown away by the love and care we are receiving. We originally set a goal of raising $2,500 as a team. I think we are currently at just under $13,000. Amazing. I have family flying in, people walking in many other areas of the country and even an international team from the UK walking. I cannot find the words to express just how grateful we are for your support. It will be a fun event for those who can join and we will feel the incredible love and support from those who can’t be in person. Thank you!!!

Today’s challenge: Tell someone you actually love, but have never said those words to, that you love them. It’s really not that risky is it? It will impact them greatly and likely you even more!